The Internet offers a suite well-known services including one-to-one messaging (e-mail), one-to-many messaging (bulletin board), on-line chat, file transfer and browsing. Various known Internet protocols are used for these services. Thus, for example, browsing is effected using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), which provides users access to multimedia files using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The collection of servers that use HTTP comprise the World Wide Web, which is the Internet's multimedia information retrieval system. The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a mechanism for transferring files from a server to a client. Typically, the client includes an FTP interface and appropriate software to control transfer and decompression of the received file.
There has been great interest in providing Internet access at minimal economic cost. While most computers now are pre-configured for Internet access, a significant percentage of households still do not have a personal computer. Thus, it has now been proposed to provide a data processing system that, much like a VCR, may be connected to a television set and used in lieu of a personal computer to provide Web access through a conventional remote control device associated with the system unit. Such a system enables the television to become, in effect, a “Web” appliance. The viewer can rapidly switch between conventional television and Internet access using the remote control unit. All of the conventional “Internet” access tools and navigational functions are preferably “built-in” to the system and thus hidden to the user.
It would also be desirable to update software running on the Web appliance without interaction or even the knowledge of the user. This goal, however, cannot be achieved reliably and cheaply because FTP and other Internet protocols do not allow file transfer restarts. A file transfer “restart” means that the transfer is re-initiated at a point of interruption. Thus, in the event that a conventional FTP file transmission were interrupted, e.g., due to a power outage or other such event, it is necessary to retransfer the entire file. This is highly impractical with very large files across a typical 28.8 Kbs modem, especially without user interaction.
The present invention addresses and solves this problem.